Thread: [eboard-devel] This is not a flame war
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From: Andres D. <and...@la...> - 2003-09-11 23:42:51
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Hello I used eboard for first time two years ago. I think that it's the most interesting chess client for UNIX like operating systems. I liked his gtk interface because is pretty, usable, looks "modern", and has many features. Despite that, I think about eboard: - GTK1 is a deprecated library, so eboard should use GTK2. GTK2 is much much better than GTK1 (better widgets, pango, antialiasing, is faster etc.), is more powerfull for programers, looks very nice (I desagree with felipe, perhaps you don't like windows-like gtk themes), it will be improved and is ported to, at least: linux, solaris, windows, *BSD and HP/UX. Also, I think eboard should use other good gnome libraries like gdk-pixbuf (instead of imlib) and pango. - Eboard doesn't seem to be in development. The web hasn't change for a long time, the information in the web is obsolated. The Geocrawler Archives don't have mails newer than 11/02/2002. The sourceforge archive is more often down than up. Lukily I could read the devel mail archives. -The eboard development doesn't have targets. Probably Felipe has goals for eboard, but there isn't TODO list. I think that with a TODO list is easier to help and find more developers. - Eboard is a project of Felipe Bergo, for his egcs (egcs was an old "experimental" version of GCC "to merge the existing GCC forks") and gtk versions. Fortunately someday he will update his software ;-). I was thinking about a fork of eboard when I thought that the last devel mail was in november 2002. But fortunately eboard is alive. Now I propose to do a TODO list. I suggest: TODO (before first stable version): - To do a TODO list ;-) - GTK2 port - Don't use deprecated widgets - Use pango - Use gck-pixbuf instead of imlib - UCI protocol support - Windows port - Add some analysis features (like SCID) Don't think that this is a flame, I like eboard very much but I want a better eboard. I will finish my exams the 19th of September, then I'd like to help (I am very interested in UCI sopport because there isn't chess client for linux with UCI support). Sorry for my english Andrés Domínguez アンドレス _________________________________________________________ http://www.latinmail.com. Gratuito, latino y en español. |
From: Felipe B. <be...@se...> - 2003-09-12 00:43:35
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On Thu, 11 Sep 2003, Andres D. wrote: > better than GTK1 (better widgets, pango, antialiasing, is faster etc.), > is more powerfull for programers, looks very nice (I desagree with > felipe, perhaps you don't like windows-like gtk themes), it will be > improved and is ported to, at least: linux, solaris, windows, *BSD and > HP/UX. Also, I think eboard should use other good gnome libraries like > gdk-pixbuf (instead of imlib) and pango. GTK 2 is too big and not yet omni-present. And it has too many "side-libraries". In fact, many times I have given up using Gnome programs like Gnumeric because they require dozens of libraries to compile and many of those libraries were written by people who only know PCs with Linux. Compiling Gnome libraries on a Sun with Solaris is a pain. > - Eboard doesn't seem to be in development. The web hasn't change for a long > time, the information in the web is obsolated. The Geocrawler Archives don't have > mails newer than 11/02/2002. The sourceforge archive is more often down than up. > Lukily I could read the devel mail archives. I received translation updates on july/august, I must fix a little nuisance in the fics protocol class and then 0.9.1 will be released. eboard is a good interface for FICS, it works, its bugs are minor. My current worry is to fix all bugs and make a stable release. There's no reason to change the web site layout. It works, presents the information it's meant to present. I only update the download page when a new version is released. I'd like to have the piece themes displayed online, like xmms/winamp skin sites do, I just haven't got the time to make this up. > -The eboard development doesn't have targets. Probably Felipe has goals > for eboard, but there isn't TODO list. I think that with a TODO list is > easier to help and find more developers. There is the feature request tracker at sourceforge. > - Eboard is a project of Felipe Bergo, for his egcs (egcs was an old > "experimental" version of GCC "to merge the existing GCC forks") and gtk > versions. Fortunately someday he will update his software ;-). I often have to use computers at university labs with ancient versions of Linux/Solaris/BSD , and I have no intention of dropping GTK 1 support. Requiring the latest version of GCC, GTK, or any program or library, is very likely to deceive users. xboard still is the de facto interface beacuse it compiles absolutely everywhere with any version of compiler. egcs was just the name for gcc when the gcc team had an identity crisis. egcs releases were developed from gcc 2.7.x, and gcc 2.95.x came from egcs. > I was thinking about a fork of eboard when I thought that the last > devel mail was in november 2002. But fortunately eboard is alive. Now I > propose to do a TODO list. I suggest: This list is alive, those archives are nuts, there was some talk in july/august, for sure. > TODO (before first stable version): > - To do a TODO list ;-) > - GTK2 port I am not doing this before the stable 1.0.0, of course, you can fork eboard and do whatever you please. > - Don't use deprecated widgets I've heard gtk_clist has been deprecated. Replacing that is likely to be a hard task. Good luck, I'm taking suggestions. > - Use pango > - Use gck-pixbuf instead of imlib when eboard goes gtk 1/2 (or Qt, who knows, bloated library by bloated library...), this will be natural. > - UCI protocol support Is there any free UCI engine for Unix/Linux ? Everytime someone asked me to add UCI support I've asked this and got no reply. Adding UCI support is a matter of writing a new class deriving from Protocol/EngineProtocol (like the current XBoardProcotol in proto_xboard.cc/.h). I'd love to see someone writing this. > - Windows port eboard compiles on Mac OS X, yet a have found no one willing to make a binary package of it. A Windows port is likely to pollute the code with #ifdefs. If running on Windows is really a issue, "porting" eboard to Java would sound a better idea. > - Add some analysis features (like SCID) This has been discussed both here, on FICS and in the SCID mailing list, and SCID users also often suggest turning SCID into an ICS interface. Adding ICS support to SCID would make it a poor ICS interface, adding analysis support to eboard would make it a poor analysis tool. I believe that spending time with analysis code on eboard is futile. Not to mention that it raises computer cheating issues for ICS players. Shane seems to have vanished, and some SCID users are continuing the development of SCID. If there's something on SCID that does not work the way you think it should, it's probably easier to fix SCID than writing a completely new analysis tool. > Don't think that this is a flame, I like eboard very much but I want a > better eboard. I will finish my exams the 19th of September, then I'd > like to help (I am very interested in UCI sopport because there isn't > chess client for linux with UCI support). I would really enjoy if you (or someone else) wrote UCI support for eboard. What you need to do is look how the XBoard protocol support is written and make a sibling class from there. -- Felipe |
From: Kunnar K. <kk...@ho...> - 2003-09-12 06:10:19
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> > - UCI protocol support > > Is there any free UCI engine for Unix/Linux ? Everytime someone asked me > to add UCI support I've asked this and got no reply. Adding UCI I know one. Yace (URL: http://home1.stofanet.dk/moq/) supports UCI protocol. This is strong engine, closed source but free as free beer (free download). But yace supports also xboard protocol, so there is no need to add UCI support for using yace in eboard. I dont know any UCI only engine for Unix/Linux. ----------------------------------------- Hot Mobiil - helinad, logod ja piltsõnumid! http://portal.hot.ee |